Senator Paul Sarlo: Taj closing should be 'wake-up call' for casino expansion

On Wednesday, Taj owners announced that they plan on closing the casino after the upcoming Labor Day weekend amid an ongoing labor strike. The Taj is poised to become the fifth Atlantic City casino to close in the past three years, following the Atlantic Club, Showboat, Revel and Trump Plaza, all of which shuttered in 2014.

Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) is a major proponent of the push to bring casino gaming to northern New Jersey and supports an upcoming voter referendum to allow two new gaming permits to go to planned casinos in separate counties located at least 75 miles away from Atlantic City.

“

“

Only currently licensed operators in New Jersey will be eligible to apply for a new permit and must commit to a guaranteed $1 billion capital investment for each project

”

One-third of generated revenues are slated to go back to Atlantic City for revitalization purposes.

“It’s in the best interests of the state of New Jersey to expand the gaming sector, because it will create jobs, generate economic growth, make the state’s casino industry more competitive and help revive Atlantic City’s economy,” Sarlo said. “But everyone has a responsibility to speak up in support so that the public understands and approves the ballot question.”

But the way area Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo (D-Northfield) sees it, reports of the Taj’s planned closure “only further prove to voters why we need to continue to vigorously fight the referendum to expand casino gaming to North Jersey,” calling the expansion proposal “an effort that would put thousands more of Atlantic County's hard-working middle-class families on the unemployment line."

Sarlo disagrees.

“Local leaders and local union officials in Atlantic City who are opposed to casino expansion are being short sighted and self-defeating,” said Sarlo. “Placing casinos in North Jersey will revive the state’s gaming sector by making us more competitive at the same time it generates investments for Atlantic City. They need to get their heads out of the sand and get behind the effort to gain public approval.”